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Information Theory, Probability and Statistics

Section Information

In 1948 C. E. Shannon published his paper “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” in the Bell Systems Technical Journal. He showed how information could be quantified with absolute precision, and demonstrated the essential unity of all information media. In brief, he introduced four groundbreaking concepts that were influential enough to help change the world. Thus, his most eminent result was the concept that every communication channel had a speed limit, measured in binary digits per second. Additionally, he also realized that the content of the message was irrelevant to its transmission, since once data is represented digitally it could be regenerated and transmitted without error. On the other hand, the efficient representation of data, i.e. the source coding, was another question that Shannon opened for discussion. Finally, his paper also defined the amount of information that can be sent down a noisy channel in terms of transmit power and bandwidth, thus introducing the concept of entropy.

From that moment, this theory has been widely applied to numerous scenarios, such as statistical inference, natural language processing, cryptography, neurobiology, molecular engineering, ecology, medical physics, biomedical engineering, thermal physics, quantum computing, linguistics, plagiarism detection, pattern recognition and anomaly detection, among others. Indeed, in recent decades, it has played a key role in the invention of the compact disc, the feasibility of mobile phones, the development of the Internet, the study of linguistics and of human perception, the understanding of black holes, as well as in numerous other fields.

This section, focuses on original and new research results regarding this broad and deep mathematical theory, as well as in diverse applications. Thus, manuscripts on source coding, channel coding, algorithmic complexity theory, algorithmic information theory, information–theoretic security, and measures of information, as well as on their application to traditional as well as novel scenarios are solicited. Submissions addressing critical up-to-date reviews will also be welcome.